Leonardo ISAST and SETI Institute invite you to a meeting of the Leonardo Art/Science community.
See below for location and agenda.

The event is free and open to everybody.
Feel free to invite relevant acquaintances.

Please RSVP to p@scaruffi.com . Admission is limited.

Like previous evenings,
the agenda includes some presentations of art/science projects,
and time for casual socializing/networking.

In order to facilitate the networking, feel free to send me the URL of a webpage that describes your work or the organization you work for. I will publish
a list on this webpage before the day of the event so that everybody can check
what everybody else is doing. (Not mandatory, just suggested).

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer (USF) on "Knitting Code"
Knit cloth is tangibly constructed from series of knit and purl stitches. Code is constructed from intangible sets of zeros and ones strung together. Two projects to be shown and discussed include Virtual Knitting and KNiiTTiiNG. In Virtual Knitting users are able to knit with custom made electronic knitting needles in both physical and virtual space at the same time, constructing both tangible and intangible cloth. KNiiTTiiNG uses the Nintendo Wii to knit with.

7:30-8:00:

Ken Eklund on "Massively Seeking Susan: Connecting Strangers Through Gameplay / ZOROP"
Don't believe those who dismiss it as some sort of game. Zorop is real, and so is the Great Zoropathetic Warp - the fabric of human connection woven whenever strangers find something in common. Zoropathians can prove it: through their agency, people will see the threads they add to this great weave (at the 01SJ Biennial in September). is it possible that just by visualizing simple human connections we can make the world a better place?

8:00-8:30: BREAK

8:30-9:00:
Phil Ross (artist) on "It's Alive!: Curating life into the art realm"
An introduction to the ideas and ambitions that gave rise to BioTechnique, a 2007 show that traced the history of life as a cultured thing; the complicated logistics in curating living works into galleries and museums; a larger view of the bio-culture industry.

9:00-9:30:

Tami Spector Univ. of San Francisco) on "Nanoaesthetics"
The evolution of nanoaesthetics from representations of the molecular machine to the machine made image, including the aesthetics of molecular systems such as nanocars and nanoputians that reference the mechanistic and vitalistic philosophies of the 17th and 18th centuries

9:30:
Piero Scaruffi on the next Leonardo Art/Science evening
I will simply preview the line-up of speakers for the next Leonardo evening.

9:30pm-10:00pm: Discussions, more socializing
You can mingle with the speakers and the audience

Bios:

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer is an artist, designer, writer, and educator. Her work explores the intersections between textiles, technology, and the body on historical, constructional and conceptual levels; and often incorporates tactile elements such as candy, knitting, and machines to represent intangible computer codes and conceptual spaces. Egenhoefer is currently an Assistant Professor in Design in the Department of Art + Architecture at the University of San Francisco.

Ken Eklund is a game designer and a thought leader in the area of serious games and collaborative gameplay for the social good. He is the creator of World Without Oil, a landmark massively collaborative alternate reality game, and currently team lead on EVOKE, "a ten-week crash course on changing the world." Ken has long been interested in the positive social effects of games and open-ended, creative play. Ken and his partner on ZOROP, Annette Mees, both seek ways to use technology to create new narrative forms and experiences - he approaches it as a game designer, she is a director of immersive theater in London. Both believe "participation through play can make stories more personal, meaningful and adventuresome." Zer01 Artist in Residence.

Phil Ross is an artist, curator, and educator who places natural systems within frames of social and historic contexts. Phil's living artworks are grown into being over the course of several years, integrating traditional manufacturing techniques with practices and technologies from disparate fields. His recent work includes a trilogy of documentary videos on microorganisms, and the growing of a building composed of living fungus. Phil currated an exhibition on biotechnology for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2007, and is the founder and director of CRITTER, a science and art salon located in San Francisco's Mission District.

Piero Scaruffi is a cognitive scientist who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, the latest one being "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006). He pioneered Internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the World-Wide Web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has been awarded several national prizes in Italy and the USA. As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being "A History of Rock Music" (2003) and "A History of Jazz Music" (2007). He has also written extensively about cinema, literature and the visual arts. An avid traveler, he has visited 121 countries of the world.

Tami Spector is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of San Francisco and serves on the Board of Leonardo. She has a strong interest in the intersections of chemistry and art and aesthetics and has published a number of papers related to these topics. She is currently serving as a guest editor for an on-going special section of Leonardo on nanoscience/technology and art and welcomes comments and/or submission on this topic from the audience.